Jack O’Connell |

71-efm-1sheet-lr-1 If Idris Elba is the current bookies favourite to be the next Bond, The Sloth is hedging a long range bet on Jack O’Connell being Idris’ successor. Already a master of Bond’s essential moody, thousand yard stare and no stranger to cinematic violence, squint a bit and he could be Daniel Craig’s little brother.

In ’71 Jack plays young British squaddie Gary Hook. A newbie recruit, still green around the edges, Gary finds himself dispatched to the Northern Ireland of the early 1970’s – not a good place to be for a British soldier. His regiment are charged with keeping a very fragile peace in an anti-British Belfast, at a time when IRA militant violence was at its peak. Commanded by a naively inexperienced officer who believes a cheerful smile will get the locals on-side, his regiment are sent to patrol the unpredictable streets with minimal defensive kit.

Within minutes, things take a turn for the worse. A mob of aggressive locals surround the young soldiers, taunting and baying for blood. Tension and panic mounts and the soldiers find themselves under attack, pelted by missiles and molotov cocktails. In the confusion, they beat a chaotic retreat, leaving Gary behind to the fate of the vengeful mob. Fortunately, an older woman takes pity, saving him from the worst of their violence and he makes a run for his life. But what are his chances of survival in such violently combative streets?

We rated Jack O’Connell’s ultra-disturbing turn in Starred Up and he continues to impress here, a master of maximum conveyance with minimal dialogue. Gripping and shot with frightening intensity and immediacy, it captures the terror and animalism of the gang mentality – whether in Northern Ireland or any other political hotspot. Just don’t get so traumatised that you forget to stop by Paddy Power for a quick flutter on the way home

UK release 10 October. More in the same vein? Try Starred Up.

There are many reasons not to like Starred Up. It’s excruciatingly violent, depressingly bleak and carries the threat of being Yet Another Slice Of UK Grim Pie. Oh goody. Please serve The Sloth an extra large portion. There are also many reasons to admire it. And they begin with Jack O’Connell.

Jack plays Eric, a violent young offender entering prison. Eric has evidently been ‘starred up’, the process whereby a young offender deemed too dangerous to be held in a juvenile detention centre is ‘promoted’ to adult prison. Distinguishing himself from the outset by brutally attacking his prison guards, Eric doesn’t just embrace violence, but appears to positively relish it.

It turns out Eric has a motive for joining the big boys. His father, Neville (Ben Mendelsohn), is held in the same prison and is something of a Top Dog. Neville, naturally, is delighted to see his son following in his own aspirational footsteps. But there is another man viing for Eric’s attention. Middle-class, genial Oliver (Rupert Friend) is a prison social worker who runs a talking therapy group and doggedly believes even the most extreme offenders can be rehabilitated.

This is not a film for the squeamish. All the nastiest elements of prison life are laid bare: drugs, corruption, sexual predators, and the ever-present violence is raw, graphic and very difficult to watch. This could seem clichéd but, filmed inside a real prison, it captures the claustrophobia and constant, simmering tension with disconcerting realism. Best of all are the performances. Jack O’Connell inhabits Eric with such virulent abandon, menace and confused vulnerability we had to remind ourselves we were watching a fiction.

Starred Up is not a film you enjoy. It’s a film you emerge from disturbed, shaken and with a greater understanding of an institution most of us, fortunately, know little about.

UK release 21 March. Want something equally challenging? Try Under The Skin.

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’71. Soldiering On.

Starred Up. Like Father, Like Son.